Claire.

Claire continues to be a very silly, cute little girl. I often have seen people look at Claire, chuckle, and say, "She just cracks me up. She is so funny." This happens even when Claire is just sitting there, doing nothing. I suppose she just has a certain way about her. She is beautiful and goofy.

Claire's vocabulary continues to increase, but even without many words, she understands commands very well, and communicates well with gestures and tones.

When Claire says "thank you", she will sign it. The sign for thank you is to put your dominant hand to your lips, then bring it down and out toward the person you are thanking. We also have taught Claire how to blow kisses, so that now, when we tell her to say thank you, she will sign it, while also saying, "MMMwah!"-as she has gotten them confused together.

Another word that Claire has learned to sign is "sorry." I do not know how to sign this word, but Claire has developed her own. You see, Claire went through a short phase in which she was hitting. She only hit Lara a couple times, and I have never known her to hit anyone else, except me. She doesn't hit in an aggressive way-it's more like she is frustrated and wants you to leave her alone. She always has time-outs in her crib when she does this. I've worked hard at teaching her not to do this, and to be gentle and say sorry. Whenever I would go to take Claire out of time-out, I would say, "Be gentle, don't hit, be nice....say 'sorry, mama'," and would take her hand and make gentle strokes with it on my face.
So one day, something different had happened, and I said, "Claire, be nice...say sorry." So Claire walked over to me and reached for my face. I bent down toward her, and she gently stroked my face a few times. So this is Claire's sign for sorry-gentle strokes on the face. She will do this even without being told, when she knows she was naughty and needs to be gentle. I personally find this approach to be much more effective than a simple 'sorry' word, so I am quite pleased with this development, and the fact that Claire totally gets what I am saying!

Another cute thing Claire will say is "eooo?" (hello?) If Claire doesn't know where we are in the house, she will walk through the rooms and down the hall, saying "eooo?" "eoooo?" Then when she sees you, she will say, "Hi!"

Claire loves to color and paint. I recently made the girls some new crayons. I went through their crayon box, and took all the worn-down ones out. I took the paper off, cut up the crayons and had the girls put them in a mini muffin pan. You preheat the oven to 350, but turn it off when you are ready to put the crayons in. When the crayons become soupy (about 5 min), take them out and put them in the freezer. Wait a few hours, then (carefully and gently) turn the pan over and shake out the new crayons. The girls loved these, and not just for coloring. In fact, they spent more time just looking at them; they are so pretty. If you do this, make sure you scrub the mini muffin pan and get all the crayon wax off before putting it in the dishwasher. Also, make sure to watch the children so they do not put a crayon muffin in the dishwasher when your back is turned for 2 seconds. ;) These crayons work great, but you have to tilt them and draw with the bottom of the crayon on the paper.

So, back to Claire. Claire is very interested in what is on TOP; in what is out of her reach. Her tallness allows her to investigate pretty well. This morning, as I was doing Lara's hair, Claire walked in to the bedroom, holding a big homemade waffle with both hands. "Claire," I said, "that was Daddy's waffle!"When Claire is not so lucky with her height, she will figure out a way to use the objects around her to climb where she wants-in this case, a small chair to a small table to a big table.Claire is really affectionate. I would not be surprised if Claire's love language is affection. I wonder what Lara's is...I've been trying to ascertain what it might be, but haven't figured it out.

Claire is also very easy-going. Most of her babysitters tell me that she is really easy, and just hangs out and plays. But rest assured that she has her needy days!

She is still not a very good sleeper; some nights, you will not hear a peep out of her, but many nights, she will wake up one or two times. Thankfully, we just lay her back down and can go right back to sleep. She likes to snuggle with her monkey and bear.

Claire also loves taking baths and brushing her teeth and wearing dresses and going for walks and talking to dogs and eating cookies and reading books and wearing her winter coat and princesses and monkeys.

And WE love Claire!!